Aptsh(1) interactive APT shell

SYNOPSIS

aptsh {install pkg | remove pkg | update | ... } [-?, --help] [-c, --config-file configuration_file ] [-s, --storing] [-v, --version] [-x, --execute aptsh_command ]

DESCRIPTION

Aptsh is a tool which makes using APT much easier. It gives you an interactive shell with all those sweet features like tab-completion (which you can use to complete name of a package), simpler access to apt commands and easier package searching (ls, rls). Although it's not necessary, it just tries to make life easier.
Other way of using Aptsh is using it as a normal command-line tool, a replacement for apt-* commands.

USAGE

We'll try to do some ordinary administration tasks - install/remove/search few packages. As a root, type 'aptsh' and press return. Then type 'ins', and press Tab - 'ins' should change into 'install' followed by a whitespace. Now write down 'kde', and press Tab twice - if you're using Debian or other large distro, it should ask you whether you want to see all packages which begin with 'kde'. As you should have noticed - it works exactly like a good shell. You can also play with 'remove' - then aptsh will prompt only installed packages. And remember, that you can pipe results of commands (ie. dump | grep ^Package | cut -d  -f 2 | grep ^kde ). You can execute a normal shell command by preceding it with ".".

COMMANDS

Aptsh commands:

dump-cfg
Dump all aptsh options.
dpkg
Query dpkg.
ls
Search for packages by matching names to a wildcard. Remember that in some enviroments you have to put the expression between " " or preced special chars with \.
rls
Search for packages by matching names to a regular expression. Read note about special chars above!
whatis
Display a short description of a package.
whichpkg
Find the package that supplies the given command or file.
listfiles
List all files owned by a package.
news
Obtain the latest news about the package from Debian servers
changelog
Retrieve latest changelog for the package from Debian servers
toupgrade
List packages with newer versions available for upgrading
`
Change mode.
queue-commit
Commit stored commands. User answers to all prompts.
queue-commit-say
Commit commands kept in command queue, automatically answering to all prompts. It should be followed by the answer, if not, it answers \n (then usually program's behaviour is default). Proper usage of commit-say would be "commit-say y" - then Aptsh answers 'y' to all prompts.
queue
Display currently stored commands.
queue-remove
Remove stored commands from list. It should be followed by list or section of numbers of items to remove. Proper usage of this command would be: "commit-remove 1 3 10-15 21" - it will remove items numbered as 1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21. You can use alias 'last' which refers to the last item.
queue-clear
Clear list of stored commands
orphans
Find orphaned libraries on your system.
orphans-all
Find all orphaned packages on your system, not only libraries. It's output is other than the orphans' one - it's splitted into two columns, first one contains packages' Section, second Name.
help
Executes 'man aptsh', or displays short info about commands (if any were given as arguments).
help-howto
Displays HOWTO. You can pipe it to a browser ("more" or "less") or grep it.
quit
Erm... quit? :)

apt-get querying commands (see man apt-get):

install
update
upgrade
dselect-upgrade
dist-upgrade
remove
purge
(same as remove --purge )
source
build-dep
check
clean
autoclean

apt-cache querying commands (see man apt-cache):

show
dump
add
showpkg
stats
showsrc
dumpavail
unmet
search
depends
rdepends
pkgnames
dotty
policy
madison

AUTHOR

Marcin Wrochniak ([email protected])